TSA to ease security delays for frequent fliers
TSA to ease security delays for frequent fliers nationwide — The Transportation Security Administration plans to kick off a nationwide frequent flier program by next summer and allow the private sector to manage and operate the initiative, a top official told Congress Thursday. (Government Executive)
Airline’s other unions not joining talks — American Airlines Inc.’s pilots’ union doesn’t want to fly solo in talking with the carrier about productivity concessions. But it is for now. (Dallas Morning News)
Suicide-tourism websites shut down — An American expatriate who set up websites offering to help people make arrangements to kill themselves in Cambodia has shut the sites down, saying Friday he hoped to avoid problems with the authorities. (AP)
Gas prices end week lower — Gasoline erased nearly two more cents from pump prices Friday, while diesel prices broke the $3 a gallon mark, according to travel club AAA. (CNN/Money)
Adirondack ski area to be reborn as year-round resort — Investors have bought the defunct Big Tupper Ski Area in the Adirondacks for $1.3 million and plan to reopen it by Christmas 2006 as part of an upscale year-round resort. (AP)
A would-be Las Vegas rolls the dice — For those aching to be high rollers, but without the requisite notoriety, there’s now an alternative to standing outside the ultra-exclusive Ghostbar in Las Vegas, chitchatting with the other rejected. It is called the Spacebar, and it’s not in Nevada, but in the tumbleweed town of Cabazon, Calif., at a new gambling complex called the Morongo Casino, Resort and Spa. (The New York Times)
King Tut a hit in LA — The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will extend the King Tut exhibit by five days to accommodate near-record crowds, an exhibit promoter said. (AP)
Online travel keeps humming along — The online travel market is still going strong in the U.S., despite wider challenges such as higher fuel costs, a new study has shown. The market is expected to hit $68 billion in 2005, a notable jump from the $57 billion recorded last year, JupiterResearch said in a study released Thursday. (CNET News.com)
Hotel fined for deadly fall — A company has been fined £400,000 after a woman fell to her death from a third floor window at an Edinburgh hotel. (BBC)
Senior citizen abandoned at airport — An 85-year-old woman from the town of Maugerville is looking for answers from Air Canada after she was left alone in her wheelchair for an hour at Toronto’s Pearson airport. Lillian Doohan stopped over in Toronto in October after spending time with family in Ohio. She said she had arranged for someone with Air Canada to help get her around the large airport – her ticket identified her as a customer who needed wheelchair assistance. (CBC)
Northwest is worst for on-time numbers — Northwest Airlines’ on-time performance ranked last among the nation’s top 10 carriers in September, the first full month of a mechanics strike against the carrier, according to statistics released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. (Detroit News)
MyTravelGuide.com personalizes online travel planning — MyTravelGuide.com says it is the first major Internet travel research site to offer consumers a set of free, easy to use tools that allow them to create and save personalized trip itineraries that include maps, hotels, directions, local attractions, and restaurant information and descriptions. (Hotel Marketing)
Keeping holiday travel cheap — 5 Tips: Fuel is pricey & airlines are cutting flights, but that’s no reason to fear holiday travel. This holiday travel season is going to be brutal. Fuel prices are high, airlines are cutting flights and this year’s travel schedule will be more crowded because the holidays are on the weekend. But don’t get frustrated yet. In today’s top 5 tips we’re going to give you some tips on how to travel on the cheap. (CNN/Money)
Carrie Charney, John Frenaye, Charles Leocha, Marge Purnell, Valerie Schneider, Mary Staley, Stephanus Surjaputra, Richard Wong.